QUESTION:
What industries need a fiber optic SMA today?
ANSWER:
If you remove the communications applications and markets for fiber optic connectors, what is left?: something less than .1% of the market. What are the applications?
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Medical: laser delivery for ophthalmic (eye), dermatological (skin), and other surgeries. Data and video transmission over short distances, e.g., MRIs.
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Materials processing: laser delivery for cutting and welding thick and thin steel, PC boards, other materials and production processes. Marking of small parts in high volume.
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Spectroscopy: non-destructive testing, the measurement for medical, forensic, industrial, research.
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Sensing: pressure, temperature, magnetic, light, position, acceleration. Composite materials for aircraft, boats, wind turbines and vehicles.
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Inspection: parts counting, quality control.
This is just a smattering of what has been and is being done with SMA connectors throughout North America and Europe, and well as Japan, and more recently, Latin America and the rest of Asia, including China. What sets SMA connectors apart from the rest of the fiber world is that the connectors are used in so many different hole sizes; many different fiber sizes are used across such a myriad of applications. For an inventor, scientist, doctor, engineer, or production or marketing manager who finds an unusual or little used fiber in an odd size and wants to use it in a new or modified product that requires a novel fiber size, SMA connectors are readily available in small to moderate quantities in a matter of days, at a stable and predictable price.
READ THE FULL BLOG ARTICLE HERE: What is an SMA connector and why do we care?
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